China Is Its Own Worst Enemy

Had Chinese President Xi Jinping’s communist regime been wise, it would have sought to repair the pandemic-inflicted damage to China’s image by showing empathy and compassion to other countries. Instead, China has acted in ways that undermine its long-term interests.

NEW DELHI – The global backlash against China over its culpability for the international spread of the deadly coronavirus from Wuhan has gained momentum in recent weeks. And China itself has added fuel to the fire, as exemplified by its recent legal crackdown on Hong Kong. From implicitly seeking a political quid pro quo for supplying other countries with protective medical gear, to rejecting calls for an independent international inquiry into the virus’s origins until a majority of countries backed such a probe, the bullying tactics of President Xi Jinping’s government have damaged and isolated China’s communist regime.

The backlash could take the form of Western sanctions as Xi’s regime seeks to overturn Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” framework with its proposed new national-security laws for the territory, which has been wracked by widespread pro-democracy protests for over a year. More broadly, Xi’s overreach is inviting increasing hostility among China’s neighbors and around the world.

Had Xi been wise, China would have sought to repair the pandemic-inflicted damage to its image by showing empathy and compassion, such as by granting debt relief to near-bankrupt Belt and Road Initiative partner countries and providing medical aid to poorer countries without seeking their support for its handling of the outbreak. Instead, China has acted in ways that undermine its long-term interests.

Whether through its aggressive “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy – named after two Chinese films in which special-operations forces rout US-led mercenaries – or military-backed expansionist moves in China’s neighborhood, Xi’s regime has caused international alarm. In fact, Xi, the self-styled indispensable leader, views the current global crisis as an opportunity to tighten his grip on power and advance his neo-imperialist agenda, recently telling a Chinese university audience that, “The great steps in history were all taken after major disasters.”

China has certainly sought to make the most of the pandemic. After buying up much of the world’s available supply of protective medical equipment in January, it has engaged in price-gouging and apparent profiteering. And Chinese exports of substandard or defective medical gear have only added to the international anger.

While the world grapples with COVID-19, the Chinese military has provoked border flare-ups with India and attempted to police the waters off the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands. China has also recently established two new administrative districts in the South China Sea, and stepped up its incursions and other activities in the area. In early April, for example, a Chinese coast guard ship rammed and sank a Vietnamese fishing boat, prompting the United States to caution China to “stop exploiting the [pandemic-related] distraction or vulnerability of other states to expand its unlawful claims in the South China Sea.”

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Meanwhile, China has made good on its threat of economic reprisals against Australia for initiating the idea of an international coronavirus inquiry. Through trade actions, the Chinese government has effectively cut off imports of Australian barley and blocked more than one-third of Australia’s regular beef exports to China.

Whereas Japan readily allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency to conduct a full investigation into the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster – a probe that helped the country to improve safety governance – China strongly opposed any coronavirus inquiry, as if it had something to hide. In fact, some Chinese commentators denounced calls for an inquiry as racist.

But once a resolution calling for an “impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation” of the global response to COVID-19 gained the support of more than 100 countries in the World Health Organization’s decision-making body, the World Health Assembly, Xi sought to save face by telling the assembly that “China supports the idea of a comprehensive review.” At the last minute, China co-sponsored the resolution, which was approved without objection.

The resolution, however, leaves it up to the WHO’s controversial director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to launch the review “at the earliest appropriate moment.” Tedros, who has been accused of aiding China’s initial COVID-19 cover-up, may decide to wait until the pandemic has come “under control,” as Xi has proposed.

Make no mistake: the world will not be the same after this wartime-like crisis. Future historians will regard the pandemic as a turning point that helped to reshape global politics and restructure vital production networks. Indeed, the crisis has made the world wake up to the potential threats stemming from China’s grip on many global supply chains, and moves are already afoot to loosen that control.

More fundamentally, Xi’s actions highlight how political institutions that bend to the whim of a single, omnipotent individual are prone to costly blunders. China’s diplomatic and information offensive to obscure facts and deflect criticism of its COVID-19 response may be only the latest example of its brazen use of censure and coercion to browbeat other countries. But it represents a watershed moment.

In the past, China’s reliance on persuasion secured its admission to international institutions like the World Trade Organization and helped to power its economic rise. But under Xi, spreading disinformation, exercising economic leverage, flexing military muscle, and running targeted influence operations have become China’s favorite tools for getting its way. Diplomacy serves as an adjunct of the Communist Party’s propaganda apparatus.

Xi’s approach is alienating other countries, in the process jeopardizing their appetite for Chinese-made goods, scaring away investors, and accentuating China’s image problem. Negative views of China and its leadership among Americans have reached a record high. Major economies such as Japan and the US are offering firms relocation subsidies as an incentive to shift production out of China. And India’s new rule requiring prior government approval of any investment from China is the first of its kind.

China currently faces the most daunting international environment since it began opening up in the late 1970s, and now it risks suffering lasting damage to its image and interests. A boomerang effect from Xi’s overreach seems inevitable. A pandemic that originated in China will likely end up weakening the country’s global position and hamstringing its future growth. In this sense, the hollowing out of Hong Kong’s autonomy in the shadow of COVID-19 could prove to be the proverbial straw that breaks the Chinese camel’s back.

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Brahma Chellaney, an Indian scholar, illustrates the global backlash against China over its initial mishandling of Covid-19. Australia has called for an inquiry into the origin of the virus, prompting economic sanctions from Beijing. Germany and Britain are hesitant about cooperating with the Chinese tech giant Huawei. As calls for reparations grow louder, Beijing has responded aggressively, mixing aid with threats of reprisals, adding to a growing mistrust of China. Covid-19 has reignited Trump’s trade-war rhetoric to pull US manufacturing out of China. Japan has set aside $2.2 bn to help companies looking to move resources out of the world’s second largest economy to diversify supply chains, and India and is offering them land twice the size of Luxemburg to shift factories from its neighbour. Meanwhile EU members plan to reduce their dependency on Chinese suppliers for vital materials and pharmaceuticals.Last month India has amended its laws on foreign direct investment (FDI) that would limit Chinese access to the country. Under the new rules, investors from any country that shares a land border with India must first seek government approval. The Modi administration has also reached out to more than 1,000 companies in the US, focusing on medical equipment suppliers, food processing units, textiles, leather and auto part makers among more than 550 products on its list. For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a surge in investment would help revive an economy battered by an eight-week nationwide lockdown to contain the Covid-19 outbreak, and help him hit the growth target of 25% GDP from 15% by 2022. The need to create employment is now even more urgent after the pandemic left 122 million people jobless and penniless. Men, women and children were forced to walk back to their villages, creating a humanitarian crisis. While the pandemic is ravaging across the globe, the author accuses Beijing of exploiting the distraction to advance its “expansionist” agenda. Chinese “military has provoked border flare-ups with India and attempted to police the waters off the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands. China has also recently established two new administrative districts in the South China Sea, and stepped up its incursions and other activities in the area. In early April… a Chinese coast guard ship rammed and sank a Vietnamese fishing boat,” etc.An internal report drawn up by the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of State Security, China’s top intelligence body, was sent to top leaders last month. It warned that Beijing faces a rising wave of hostility in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that could tip relations with the US into an armed confrontation. It concluded that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.Since Xi Jinping took office in 2012, China’s foreign relations have been marked by an aggressive style of “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy, named after two ultranationalist films in which Chinese special-operation forces thwart evil plots against Beijing, and eliminate US-led mercenaries. Even before Covid-19, Xi had clearly lent his support to the powerful Propaganda Department of the Communist Party, with a younger generation of Chinese diplomats proving their loyalty with defiantly jingoistic and sometimes threatening messages in the countries where they are based.Analysts see parallels in the harsh nationalist and xenophobic rhetoric of the Wolf Warriors of today with the period around the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901), an anti-imperialist, anti-Western, and anti-Christian uprising in China. If such excessive patriotic demeanour is being officially endorsed, and if “generation after generation of our fellow Chinese are educated and inculcated with a Boxer-like mentality, it will be impossible for China to take its place among the modern civilized nations of the world,” according to Zi Zhongyun, now 89, a longtime expert on America at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. If Xi wants to realise his “China dream,” he has to change his approach. For now he is desperate to revamp China’s economy. By alienating other countries, which have had enough of Chinese bullying long before the pandemic, he is doing his country a disservice. This anti-Chinese sentiments can spoil “their appetite for Chinese-made goods, scaring away investors," and further tarnish China’s image. Public opinion toward China and its leadership is at all-time low in many parts of the world. The country may be the world's largest economy, but it does not command respect and enough soft power to enjoy global popularity.

I thought China acted with admirable speed in sending aid to other countries? China also "sacrificed" its own economy it an unsuccessful attempt to keep the virus from spreading to other countries. That none of these positive actions are noticed at all, while every action that comes across as against Western interest is portrayed as self-seeking, seems to betray a deep hostility towards China by the author.

Come on, what is Project Syndicate's role? Is it part of a Western campaign to bring war and conflict just like how the US manipulated to media into supporting its invasion of Iraq?

The CCP threatened those countries that they sold medical supplies to(calling it donations) Donations are free selling is not free btw,that if they wanted to receive those supplies they had to make a statement praising The corrupt and murderous CCP regime if they wanted those supplies.They also hid the virus from the world with the aid of WHO and then tried to blame it on the U.S military which anyone with a lick of common sense knows would be an act of war.They have continuously spread lies and disinformation while in the process killing thousands if not hundreds of thousands of the poor Chinese citizens no surprise there considering the CCP has killed in excess of 65 million of their own citizens since they took power which is more then both world wars combined.I think it is time for the CCP to be put to the screws and for them to be isolated economically and for the U.S to start flexing it's muscles in the SCS and maybe establish a joint military base with Taiwan and for Taiwan to declare it's independence we all know China's navy is a joke in under an hour a Nimitz class carrier would turn China's one carrier into an artificial reef.Time for regime change in Beijing.

Sir: u say,".. , what is Project Syndicate's role..". You may like to know that in majority of countries of this world , the press is privately owned, and managed by independent citizens who speak and write with fierce sense of independence. It is guaranteed by constitutional rights . Project-syndicate is one of them! That is why oppositional views however repulsive they may be, are still get printed. Think about it! Can you do that in an authoritarian country like China ?

Perhaps it's true that Project Syndicate is privately owned, but does that make it free of strategic influence? We know there are newspapers that are owned by media magnates, and they often reflect the political prejudices of their owners.

We also know that media commentators also often aspire to (or come from) jobs in government (e.g., US State Department), think tanks (many funded by the US) and industry (e.g., the US Defence Industry).

The fact of private ownership does not mean they are free from strategic influence.

We also know from historical experience that the "independent media" has been manipulated by the US State Department for its purposes - think of the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, now widely thought to be illegitimate and based on misleading statements made by the US State Secretary.

I wholehearted agree on many of your points. Private newspapers reflect A mix of “ bias”, points of view of writers, commentators, owners and readers. Perhaps policy makers of a state are Also to some extent influenced by reading them too. So what does that mean?But to suggest as you do that independent papers are mouth piece of the government in charge , doesn’t carry much persuasion.

Take PS. it publishes diverse view points unlike One in an authoritarian state.

Hi, no I wasn't arguing that "independent papers" were a mouth piece of governments. My argument is that nominally "independent papers" have their own biases and are subject to strategic influence.

When I read a biased piece (such as the present) published in Project Syndicate, it feels disappointing, because we expect Project Syndicate to do better than this. What is its mission? Is it a forum for "analysts" such as Brahma Chellaney to write pieces that reflect their own prior beliefs and prejudices? Or is it a forum for objective writing?

At least with government owned media (such as the BBC and CGTN), we are aware that they have a certain bias. With privately owned media, we shouldn't naively think that they provide an objective view of the world. In fact, I would argue that government owned media like the BBC and CGTN provides more objective perspectives. In the case of CGTN, at least it offers an alternative world view to that pushed by the supposedly "independent media".

Like Nazi Germany, the Xi-led Communist Party of China is firmly on the path of imperial overreach. Xi will likely meet the fate of Hitler. The people of China, unfortunately, will pay the price for the misdeeds and crimes of Xi and his coterie.

Nancy, if what you say is true, then President Xi would gain enormous credit with the rest of the world if he were to hold fair and free elections in China. I mean with a 95 % approval rating as you suggest he has, he should 'romp it in', as we say in the west.

At the moment Nancy, I would suggest that perhaps something like 95 % of the rest of the world most certainly do not 'love' President Xi and do not agree with him. I know that I certainly do not.

Since the Athenians invented their peculiar form of democracy (which was and remains republican) there has never been a free and fair election. Not one.

If you want to see free and fair elections go to the only country that has allowed the Carter Center to supervise them for 20 years: China.

Coincidentally China is also the world's leading democracy. No matter how you slice it–constitutionally, electively, popularly, procedurally, operationally, substantively or financially–China comes out ahead. In survey after survey, it's the most trusted government in the world and its policies enjoy the highest support. Don't believe me? Read 'Selling Democracy to the Chinese' https://www.unz.com/article/selling-democracy-to-china/.

Obviously, and unfortunately, the author and the first two commentators have limited understanding of the “Chinese posture” of over 5000 years of history, system of thoughts, and vision. It would be wise of them to study and learn the imperatives behind the endurability of this civilisation before making unfair and spurious observations.

CHINKAR TAN: The writer is a highly respected academic working in a famous university. That said all nationalists of all nations boast too much about their own history add, embellish and so on! Chinese are no different ! Perhaps it might have stretched back to stone ages too! How do you know?

So why don't you summarise its history and highlight say within 200 words for ignorant readers of PS?

Having read many pieces by the author, the authors' writings are clearly politically motivated. If you check the many references given, you will find that many are partisan and not reliable, like the article in Fox news by Navarro. The author does not aim to inform the reader, but to select arguments and evidence to enforce the negative image of China. From an Indian nationalist's perspective, China's loss is India's gain and hence every opportunity should be taken to hit China. But this makes it propaganda instead of journalism or scholarship.

There are always admirers, apologists and surrogates of Communist Party of China not only in China but also elsewhere. But facts are facts as pointed out by the author in this and other articles. Can any one deny brutal suppression and occupation of Tibet by the Red Army,? How about death of millions of Chinese during Mao’s cultural revolution, moving down with machine guns blazing on its its own citizen, claiming the entire South China Sea against legitimate claims of coastal states, bullying and intimidating etc. and re-education Uighur Muslims. There are always some who close their eyes to these ghastly crimes and praise an authoritarian state by in the glare of clean high rise buildings . But the writer was writing about these things.

We must also admit that CPC’s raising lives of hundreds of million of its people out of poverty and destitution in few decades is admirable. But all rulers have responsibility to the ruled by being just, democratic and avoiding violence in governance. Ethics and morals are just as important everywhere.

I can gladly deny brutal suppression and occupation of Tibet by the Red Army? No such suppression occurred.

And equally deny the death of millions of Chinese during Mao’s cultural revolution, especially the bit about moving down with machine guns blazing on its its own citizens. Twenty million Chinese die every year and, during his 25 year tenure, Mao lowered their death rate by 50%.

Also happily deny their claiming the entire South China Sea against legitimate claims of coastal states. China occupies exactly the same features in the SCS today that it did in 1987. The coastal states were urged and bribed by the US into making specious claims.

And I have no difficulty denying the bullying and intimidating of Uighur Muslims–but no their . They needed re-education to become functional members of society and take the jobs that the PRC created for their radicalized youth. Who radicalized their youth? US Ambassador Chas. H. Freeman, Director for Chinese Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from 1979-1981:

"The CIA programs in Tibet, which were very effective in destabilizing it, did not succeed in Xinjiang*. There were similar efforts made with the Uyghurs during the Cold War that never really got off the ground. In both cases you had religion waved as a banner in support of a desire for independence or autonomy which is, of course, is anathema to any state. I do believe that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones applies here. I am part American Indian and those people are not here (in the US) in the numbers they once were because of severe genocidal policies on the part of the European majority”. 8/31/18https://supchina.com/podcast/legendary-diplomat-chas-w-freeman-jr-on-u-s-china-strategy-and-history-part-3/

Although China indeed has shown unusual restraint in the Hong Kong protests, I think it is important to realize that if China ascends to great/super power - it will act like a superpower; that is, imperial. In this respect, China will be no different than the European and American Empires. One only needs to look at the oppression of Uyghurs, the conquest of Tibet, and the ongoing conquest of the South China Sea.

As an philanthropist ,you are asking for an investigation. That's really a positive sign . But my question is here why have not you say anything about the Khashmir issue? Don't there exist human crisis? Or are you just getting fun spreading anti-china propaganda or just getting fun provoking China?

Perhaps the reason for the lack of empathy shown by China is that empathy doesn't really feature a great deal in their mindset. There still is a dominance of fragile ego perched over a brooding inferiority complex. They try to be patient and understanding but snap back into virulent anger when they feel unappreciated and disrespected. However it's probably not fair to condemn them too much over Hong Kong as the kind of protests taking place there would have been met with increasing crackdowns everywhere else too by now. The Chinese government was always going to eventually take control but the hysterical nature of the protests has advanced that agenda dramatically, so in a sense they are bringing it on themselves.Chellany gives us a long list of all the things the Chinese have done wrong but at least until now, they haven't just picked some nation they are annoyed with and just bombed the hell out of it, just because they can. That pleasure remain reserved for the United States. Perhaps instead of being so harshly critical we should show some empathy sometimes.

Thanks! Their lack of compassion would explain why, by December this year Chinese mothers and infants will be less likely to die in childbirth than ours, their children will graduate from high school three years ahead of American kids and live longer, healthier lives and there will be more drug addicts, suicides and executions, more homeless, poor, hungry and imprisoned people in America than in China.

In regard to the empathy shown by China to other countries etc as mentioned in the opening lines of the article, I think there was mostly an empty channel with some static coming from them. Admittedly they probably thought western countries would be able to learn what they were dealing with after seeing China struggle and wrestle with their outbreak but that was not the case.The USA may be particularly lacking empathy as well but at least they haven't yet put the tanks to their people to quell the unrest.A thing such as empathy seems to be missing from the political stage no matter from which angle you view it. You're correct in saying it's not just the Chinese. Empathy, in political circles, is dead.

Those protests didn't start until until the CCP started trying to pass laws that went against the accord that was agreed upon before the 1997 handover maybe you should check your facts first unless your a member of the 50 cent army which wouldn't surprise me and btw the only ones getting violent at those demonstrations are the HK police trying to please their CCP masters to bad the demonstrators don't have the firepower to shoot back at the police,I bet it would be more peaceable then.This Communist regime in beijing is the same as any other communist regime a blood soaked autocratic authoritarian regime that only cares about increasing their power and they don't care who dies as long as they maintain their hold on power.I really feel bad for the Chinese people who've had to put up with these despots for the last 75 years.

Oh, really? Article 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Law: The government “shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People’s Government, or theft of state secrets, to prohibit foreign political organizations or bodies from conducting political activities in the Region, and to prohibit political organizations or bodies in the Region from establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies.”

The HK Government repeatedly failed to enact the laws required by the Basic Law, which has led to murderers going free and spies and criminals of all kinds causing trouble. Their failure endangered the world's most trusted government, the PRC, which has full rights to enact security legislation for the Colony, which is part of China.

P.S. The US, Canada, the UK and Germany punish persons who adhere to their enemies or plan to topple the government with death penalty and maximum imprisonment under national security laws. "Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than US$10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States. (Read this complete 18 U.S.C. § 2381 – U.S. Code – Unannotated Title 18. Crimes and Criminal Procedure § 2381. Treason on Westlaw) U.S. Code § 2204 also says that the term “enemy” means any country, government, group, or person that has been engaged in hostilities, whether or not lawfully authorized, with the United States.

Section 46 of the Criminal Code in Canada has two degrees of treason, called “high treason” and “treason.” However, both of these belong to the historical category of high treason, as opposed to petty treason which does not exist in Canadian law.

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Mass protests over racial injustice, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a sharp economic downturn have plunged the United States into its deepest crisis in decades. Will the public embrace radical, systemic reforms, or will the specter of civil disorder provoke a conservative backlash?

For democratic countries like the United States, the COVID-19 crisis has opened up four possible political and socioeconomic trajectories. But only one path forward leads to a destination that most people would want to reach.

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